Laughter Can Be as Good as Exercise for the Brain

• Laughter is like exercise in many ways. A bout of giggles flexes some of your core muscles more than a series of crunches does.
• Like exercise, laughter releases feel-good chemicals in the brain and boosts mental clarity.
• Faking it till you make it with a “ha ha, ho ho” brings about the same benefits as the real deal. 

Whether it’s cracking jokes with friends or watching a hilarious comedian, a good belly laugh feels great. But did you know that it’s also good for you? Your sides are sore after a fit of giggles for a reason: Laughter is exercise, and it brings you — and your brain — some of the same great benefits.

“This is a simple thing that anyone can do,” says Gulshan Sethi, a cardiothoracic surgeon at the Tucson Medical Center. “You don’t have to take any medicine. There are no adverse side effects. You have nothing to lose.” Sethi is a certified instructor of laughter yoga, a practice that uses simulated laughter exercises for physical and psychological benefits.

Solid core work

Yucking it up can leave you sore and breathless. Laughter engages facial and core muscles. Researchers in Munster, Germany, wanted to know just how much. They measured muscle engagement in a group of adults while they performed crunches, back lifts and simulated laughter exercises. That is, the group guffawed on command, not necessarily in response to something funny. The researchers found that laughter engaged oblique muscles (your sides) as much as or more than crunches and back lifts did.

Laughter on the brain

Since a hearty chuckle can feel like a great workout — albeit a pretty funny one — your mind and body should reap some of the same benefits. And they do.

You’ve heard of a runner’s high? That feel-good, post-workout buzz is fueled by the same chemicals that make laughter feel so good. Just as exercise does, laughter triggers the secretion of endorphins, dopamine and serotonin.

“These hormones live in the blood and brain, relieve pain and improve overall sense of well-being,” Sethi says. That’s why exercise and laughter alike can alleviate symptoms of depression, stress and anxiety. In experiments, laughter has been shown to reduce cortisol levels in saliva — a marker of stress.

“Stress is inflammation that causes all kinds of disease in every part of the body, including the brain,” Sethi says.

The mental clarity you feel after a workout can be achieved through laughter, too.

Researchers at Loma Linda University in California studied the effects of laughter on the short-term memory of 20 healthy older adults. Ten adults watched comedy videos for 20 minutes, while 10 others waited for 20 minutes. Those who waited couldn’t nap, talk, read or use a cellphone. Both groups took short-term memory recall tests before and after their respective 20-minute activities. Those who watched comedy videos scored significantly higher on the post-test than their peers.

Not in the mood?

Nobody feels like whooping it up all the time. But you can still earn the rewards. You know the difference between a real laugh and a forced, fake one, but studies show that your body doesn’t. That’s a good thing because spontaneous laughter lasts a few minutes, while you could fake it all day.

“In a 22-minute sitcom, you get four or five chuckles,” says Billy Strean, a professor of physical education and recreation at the University of Alberta in Canada. He researches the role of laughter in learning and well-being. “In 22 minutes of laughter yoga, you’re laughing most of the time and getting all the oxygen, muscle movement and other physiological changes. It’s a longer, more intense dose.”

Still skeptical? Numerous studies support the “fake it till you make it” basis for laughter yoga. In a May 1988 study at the University of Illinois, researchers asked study participants to hold a pen either between their lips (activating frown muscles) or between their teeth (activating smile muscles). A third group held the pen in their hand.

Afterward, when researchers showed each participant a cartoon and asked him or her how funny it was, the “smile” group rated the cartoon significantly funnier than the other two groups. Feelings produce facial expressions, but facial expressions produce feelings, too.

Similarly, Sethi says, the forced chuckles in laughter yoga usually evolve into the real thing in no time.